U.S. Pat. No. 4,423,917 discloses an electrical connector for use in situations where misalignment between the connector and mating terminals is likely and where blind mating occurs. In this known connector, the housing is rigidly mounted; e.g., on a sliding drawer on a computer rack, and the contacts within the housing are mounted therein for both rotational and vertical movement to facilitate receiving misaligned terminals thereinto through opposing ends of the housing.
Although the aforementioned electrical connector is well suited for its intended purpose, it is not well adaptable to situations where not only misaligned terminals or mating contacts are present but where vibrational forces are present and the connector must have some freedom of movement.
It is, therefore, necessary to provide an electrical connector that can be mounted to a stationary bracket and have freedom to move in the x and y directions.